...take a penalty under extreme pressure

Alan Kennedy scored Liverpool's decisive kick in the European Cup final penalty shoot-out against Roma in 1984

It was pressure I had never experienced before and it's fair to say Joe [Fagan, the Liverpool manager] probably had more confidence in me than I did. I had taken penalties before but this time around it was definitely different. The goalkeeper looked massive and the goal looked small, tiny really. This definitely affected me as during my run-up I did what you are told never to do. I changed my mind about where I was going to place the ball. Initially I decided on bottom-left of the goal but then I went for top-right. Thankfully the ball went in. Having scored such an important goal, I wanted to celebrate properly and went to do a double somersault. In the end I just jumped on the spot - not one of my finest moments. But it didn't matter, the important thing was I scored when it mattered most.

...dislike a team-mate

Rob Lee first trained with England in autumn 1994

Alan Shearer and I are great friends but it wasn't always so. We laugh about it now but, when I first linked up with England, Alan [then a Blackburn striker] rarely used to say a word to me. I don't think he got beyond "hello" and I thought: "How bleedin' arrogant can you get?" It's hard to believe we get on brilliantly these days but I acquired totally the wrong impression of him - meanwhile he says I just walked past him without speaking so he just thought I didn't like him. The other England lads knocked around in established friendship groups and I wondered whether Alan and some of the others didn't think I should be in the international set up but I gradually got to know and like them.

...play in a cauldron of hate

Steve McManaman played in El Clásico for Real Madrid in Barcelona

It's like nothing else. In Spain away fans don't travel so you've got 100,000 Barcelona fans absolutely baying for blood. I played in the game when Luis Figo had a pig's head thrown at him when he took a corner. It was horrifying. We'd go from the hotel to the training camp and have armed guards alongside us, and you'd go slow because of the traffic. Then you'd turn off the main road and you'd have a tirade of bottles flying at the bus and the windows would smash. The players would huddle together in the middle of the coach. I used to love it actually, I'd be dead excited and the exhilaration would pull you together as a team.

...face Fernando Torres when he is clean through

Craig Gordon twice played in goal for Sunderland against the Liverpool striker last season

If I can pull off a save in a situation like this, I would actually take more satisfaction than a penalty save. You feel as if you have pulled the team out of a big hole. The two key things to do are to stay big for as long as possible and, crucially, force the striker into making a decision. If you go down too early, come rushing out too early or take up a poor position, you make it easy for him to pick a spot to score into. To guys like Fernando Torres, it is easy from there. Once he has made that decision, all you can do is react as quick and as best you can; that is why reactions and speed of thought are so important to goalkeepers. The odds are his favour, he will always be expected to score. It is a battle for the goalkeeper, but one I enjoy. There is no point trying to catch his eye but, while people may say you should solely watch the ball, there are clues in his body language as to what he is going to do. And if you read that language correctly and force him into shooting from an awkward angle, either too early or too late, the odds are back in your favour.

...play in a fairytale

Jamie Collins captained Havant & Waterlooville at Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round in January

It was incredible to take the lead against Liverpool, not just once but twice. We didn't expect to score there but having it done it once, our confidence immediately went up and all the lads were geeing each other up to do it again, which we did. It made it more special that both goals were in front of the Kop. I remember that while we were celebrating the second goal, the home fans began applauding us, which was amazing. Hearing that, I looked at the guys and told them to soak in what was happening and to remember this day for the rest of the lives as such a moment would never happen again. It definitely hasn't for me."

...face your old club

Steve Claridge has played over 1,000 games for 16 English league teams

It's pretty difficult, horrible actually, because you're playing against guys who you've built up a close relationship with in the past. Unfortunately, I did quite a lot of it during my career. I remember going back to Cambridge United when I was at Aldershot and the Cambridge boys had a £50 competition to see who could kick me the hardest. You can have a laugh after the game but for that 90 minutes it is very tough. I've had different reactions from the fans. I went back to Millwall and they sang my name, and returned to Leicester, scored a goal and they sang "Super Stevie Claridge". I got a tough reception going back to Pompey but that's because they hadn't wanted me to go. With the fans it tends to depend on the circumstances in which you leave.

...score an own goal

Dejan Stevanovic scored for West Brom while playing for Portsmouth in 2004

It may be an accident or may be because of your own stupidity but, whatever the reason, you have to immediately put it in the past and get on with the match. If you don't then it will ruin your concentration and perhaps make you score another one, which would be a disaster. I have always been the type of person who, if I have scored an own goal, will go into the dressing room afterwards and say sorry to my team-mates. That doesn't make it any better but I feel it is the best thing to do.

...make the best ever save

Gordon Banks saved from Pele as England played Brazil in 1970

It was a bit special because Pele was special. I've never seen a player as good, ever. It was 0-0 and we were playing quite well. Maybe if it had gone in our heads might have gone down and we might not have played so well. When Pele headed the ball he was half-shouting "goal" and turning away to celebrate. It all happened very quickly. I was just looking at the ball and where I was landing on the hard ground. Once I got my hand to it I hadn't a clue where it was going. From the angle, I thought it was still going into the net. It was only when I landed that I saw it was behind me and I realised I'd made the save. There was an almighty roar in the stadium. Half of them were cheering a goal, and then when it bounced up over the bar the other half were cheering the save.

...be new boy at a huge club

Alan Hansen joined Liverpool from Partick for £110,000 in 1977

Intimidating. When I signed Liverpool had just won the First Division and were going for a treble with the FA Cup and the European Cup final in Rome. I arrived there and I was totally intimidated. But the players were brilliant to me. The night I arrived Phil Thompson and Terry McDermott came to the hotel and took me out for a drink. Obviously I'd signed for the best club in Europe at the time which made me feel like a million dollars. But I was really nervous, and them coming round was just great. That was one of the secrets of Liverpool's success. People coming to the club were made really welcome and I was no different. In fact Bob Paisley himself came and picked me up at Lime Street when I first came down from Partick. It was unbelievable. It was one of his ways of making you feel welcome.

...tire during extra-time

We won in extra time in oppressive heat. When Charlie George scored it took me ages to get up to celebrate with him, I was as weary as an 80-year-old. I have no memories of the last eight minutes. I must have run around purely on instinct and when the final whstle went my legs buckled with relief. When I hoisted the Cup I was totally blank and detached. I had given everything I had and there was nothing left to give. I could enjoy the civic reception in Islington the next day more and was deliriously happy that day but at that moment in the royal box I felt like a zombie.

...make your England debut

Rob Lee made his debut against Romania at Wembley in October 1994

I scored on my England debut. It was not only something I'd long dreamt about but one of those rare occasions when you know that life really can't get much better. The preparation hardly proved ideal though as I had slightly injured my right foot. When [manager] Terry Venables asked about the foot I said I was fine. The initial build up seemed incredibly slow but then time suddenly started flying and there I was alongside Paul Ince in central midfield. I didn't do much early on, [Ilie] Dumitrescu scored and I thought, "This might be my only chance and I'm blowing it." Then, just before half-time, Graeme Le Saux crossed, I made a late run into the box and Alan Shearer headed down beautifully for me to shoot first time, right-footed, under the keeper. Afterwards a driver was waiting to take me back to the north-east for training with Newcastle the next morning. Five minutes into the journey starvation set in and I raided a McDonalds for a McChicken and chips and a Mars bar. The driver dropped me off at 4am and, still high on adrenalin, I sat up reading newspapers we'd forgotten to cancel.

...make a monumental decision as an official

Darren Cann awarded Arsenal a 90th minute equaliser v United in 2007

I was glad that when William Gallas struck the shot I was in the optimum position on the goal-line. I watched the whole of the ball cross the line and conveyed my decision to Howard Webb, the referee, shouting "It's a goal." I didn't think about the consequences. There's so much pressure that I don't think you could perform effectively if you thought about 60,000 making a crescendo of noise. There's a couple of lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem If which sums up what we go through. "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too." I think that applies to Gallas' goal, when you have to trust yourself to know you are right. I keep that line in my kitbag.

...be famous for one thing

Roger Hunt played up front in England's 1966 World Cup-winning team

Moments like Geoff Hurst's second goal [the disputed goal where Hunt celebrated rather than putting it back over the line] get mentioned so often, people ask why didn't you do this, why didn't you follow it in. It's only because England haven't won it since that it gets brought up every four years. You can get fed up with talking about it. Sometimes I feel lucky to have been picked to play. It means everything I do now is connected to what happened 40 years ago. After the final I was back with Liverpool within a week, getting ready for the Charity Shield. Bill Shankly wasn't too happy that England had won the World Cup. "Forget that now," he said. "You're back playing at Liverpool."

...be told your career is over

Norman Whiteside retired with a knee injury aged 26 after nine years with Manchester United and Everton

Moments after my 13th operation in 10 years, Everton's surgeon said to me: "You'll spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair if you carry on." So, it shouldn't really have come as a shock to me when, after six months of trying to defy his diagnosis, I accepted that I couldn't reach the standards I'd set myself and announced my retirement. It didn't hit me until the day after, a day spent crying in bed with the duvet over my head. It wasn't self-pity but grief for a future I had lost and fear of how I was going to manage without it. All the bravado you adopt down the pub about the shortness of your career doesn't make you feel any better when the day dawns. It takes months to answer the question that reverberates around your head: "If all you've ever wanted to do is play football and all you've ever done is play football where do you turn when football finishes?" Pride picks you up and motivates you to go on but the sense of loss is hard to shake off for years.

Q&A: Steve McManaman

Can you hear the crowd when it shouts advice like 'Man on!'?

The crowd always make sure you know. You do notice it when you start playing in front of big crowds, and it helps.

Does the physio's magic sponge do any good?

There's no away a bit of water is going to fix an injury. You get a bit of time out and perhaps that takes the sting out of the knock. It's when you start running that you know how badly injured you are.

Do you trust a player with the ball if he's having a shocker?

Football is a confidence game so if you've given the ball away five or six times it can be hard, but you have to keep wanting the ball and have trust in your team-mates. You just don't have time to look for who's playing well.

Do you communicate with your manager much during a game?

At Liverpool we'd get quite a lot of advice from the sidelines. I'd welcome it. As a winger they'd say "get wider" or "tuck in". You don't have to agree with what they say, but sometimes they are better placed to get a view of the game.

Is it easy to find the pace of the game when you come on as sub?

It can be very difficult. It helps if you have a good first touch and maybe set up a chance, or you can end up chasing the game, looking for the ball and if you don't find it you can quickly run out of puff.

Is the game rife with grudges?

There's always someone that has wound you up in a previous game, or kicked you or something like that. Some players hold them for a long time, like Roy Keane did with Alfie Haaland. As a winger you could wind another player up by beating them or making them look silly, and you'd remember someone who'd kicked you.

· Steve McManaman is a pundit for Setanta Sports, who will show 46 Premier League games exclusively live, and many England matches